A new study has confirmed what most parents already know -- that children and teenagers are consuming more media than ever.
In fact, the only thing they do more than sit in front a screen -- whether a computer, television or cellphone -- is sleep.
"I spend about 4 hours on my computer -- and about 8 hours on my iPod," said one Toronto student.
The U.S.-based study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans between ages eight and 18 spend about 7.5 hours a day consuming media outside the classroom. That's the majority of time when they're not asleep or in school.
And experts say the results would be roughly equivalent north of the border.
"We're seeing just an exponential growth in the amount of time kids are spending with media," said Vicky Rideout, vice president of the Program for the Study of Media and Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation, and a co-author of the report.
- Read the report
What's more, the amount of time children and teens spend using media has grown by more than an hour a day since the last study was done in 2004.
One reason may be the growing popularity of mobile devices such as smart phones, which allow users to listen to music, surf the Web or send text messages.
Yet the study didn't include text messaging in the 7.5-hour total. If you add that activity, American children and teens actually spend 9 hours a day using electronic gadgets in their free time.
The findings have made some experts concerned.
"Anything that occupies this amount of time in kids' lives is something we really need to pay attention to," said Rideout.
But it's not clear whether the rise in media consumption is detrimental.
One surprise finding was that those who spent more time using electronics spent just as much time exercising. But they also earned lower grades in school.
"We have to be careful. There may not be a cause-and-effect relationship here. It may work one way or another -- maybe people less interested in school spend more time with media," said Matthew Johnson, a media education specialist with the Media Awareness Network.
With a report from CTV's John Vennavally-Rao in Toronto
